Synopsis In the late spring of 1796, two young women, sixteen-year-old Merrilla Cooper and nineteen-year-old Nancy Turpin are determined to change their lifestyle. Mr Cooper, the magistrate, sentences Mr and Mrs Waspill to hang for stealing. Bill Waspill arrives too late to aid or comfort his parents, but he plans revenge on Mr Cooper and his rich family. With his young friend Jeremy to help him, he imprisons Merrilla on his barge, strips her of her clothes, beats and starves her into submission. However, he becomes fond of her, and Merrilla agrees to his suggestion that she should work with him as a boat woman. Later, in the hope of having an easier life, she marries him at Gretna Green. They eventually arrive at the Paxton Village in Scotland. After a night of drinking in the village tavern, Bill is found the next morning, drowned. Merrilla, who has been told by Bill she has been disowned by her family, and now, almost destitute, finds accommodation in the village. She is employed as a carrier at the local coalmine. The Denstone and the Larcombe families are friends and business partners. They jointly own the Nottingham cotton mill that employs Nancy, and the Scottish coalmine, which employs Merrilla. After an explosion down the coalmine, Merrilla meets Philip Larcombe, who is helping with the rescue work. He is seriously hurt. After they and others, including children, are rescued, Merrilla nurses him back to health. They fall in love, and marry in the village church in Yorkshire, where Philip's parents live. On her wedding day, Merrilla is happily reconciled with her family. Nancy Turpin is poor, but has grand ideas. She notices Merrilla Cooper, and uses her as a role model. The money she earns at a Nottingham cotton mill is used to pay Polly Goodly for schooling, etiquette and deportment. Gradually, she is transformed into a beautiful and confident young woman. At first, she is careful to control her passionate feelings, but she is a nymphomaniac. When she meets wealthy Hugo Denstone, she gets him to forget he is engaged to Elysabeth Larcombe. He takes Nancy to his home in Yorkshire, to meet his family. On the journey, Nancy is involved in a murder. She tells a lie and is believed. She arrives to a frosty reception at Ghyll Hall. Hugo's mother, Joan, can see at a glance that Nancy is not the kind of woman who should marry her son. By this time, Hugo realises Nancy's true nature, and is repulsed by her behaviour. She is desperate to keep her rich fiance until she meets William Parkinson. She is led to believe he has a title, a castle in Scotland, and is very rich. It takes William Parkinson a while to untangle Hugo's complicated love life. Nancy, now pregnant, is tricked by William into returning to Nottingham, where she makes the dreadful mistake of marrying Mr Pugh, her old employer at the cotton mill. Hugo follows Elysabeth to London. After a masquerade, he asks her to forgive him, and gets the opportunity to propose marriage again. He is delighted when she accepts."